I own a hp tm2. The previous owner upgraded it to windows 8 in the hp service centre. While trying to reinstall the os i got the following error:

"This key cannot be used to install a retail version of windows 8"

So i ran ultimate PID checker and it says: Windows 8 RTM professional volume: GVLK.

So which version of windows 8 installer should i use and where can i download it legally.

My laptop is 64bit and has no cd/dvd drive

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You could download a MSDN version of Windows 8 Pro from anywhere. But you must make sure that it has not been tampered with.
If you search this board, you can find the hashes with which you can compare your downloaded version so that you can see if it is original or not.

If your key is legit, then you might be able to activate it against a Microsoft Activation Server or you must resort to a available KMS Server.
Several KMS servers can also be found on this board through searching.

You need to install the GVLK version of the Windows 8. But Retail also accepts Volume licenses.. There's strange.

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That could be by design of the install medium. The file named ei.cfg could be responsible in restricting this. Without further details from the original poster it is hard to determine the cause of this. The best remedy would be to download a valid MSDN version of Windows 8 Pro and create a install USB.

Why not? Its a legal key, my windows is activated. I just wish to reinstall the OS as i've purchased the laptop from the previous owner.

Am downloading msdn iso right now. Ill update as to how it goes

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If you have Pro/Core the MSDN Iso will work fine, if you have CoreSingleLanguage or whatever instead of "Core" the MSDN Iso will not work.

Also you don't actually need to reinstall unless you actually want it Clean, simply use the "RESET" feature inside Windows, this will wipe everything clean and reinstall with a base image, your OEM Laptop should have a Recovery partition and the partition should have a recovery image on it which gets used when you use this feature.

[SIGPIC]Windows[/SIGPIC]​

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If you have Pro/Core the MSDN Iso will work fine, if you have CoreSingleLanguage or whatever instead of "Core" the MSDN Iso will not work.

Also you don't actually need to reinstall unless you actually want it Clean, simply use the "RESET" feature inside Windows, this will wipe everything clean and reinstall with a base image, your OEM Laptop should have a Recovery partition and the partition should have a recovery image on it which gets used when you use this feature.

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As I said I have Windows 8 Pro x64

Ive already tried the reset feature. I get the "some files are missing.your windows installation or recovery media will provide these files" error. So ive got to download the iso anyways

Ive also tried booting into recovery by pressing f11 during startup. It just boots windows 8 normally. I think this is because the laptop came pre loaded with windows 7 and the guys at the hp service center messed up the recovery.

Its a legal key, my windows is activated. I just wish to reinstall the OS as i've purchased the laptop from the previous owner.

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It's a volume license key, which means that it is not for resale and only valid as part of an organization's volume license agreement with MS. So no, if that volume license doesn't apply to you it will never give you a legal license.

Staff Member

Ive already tried the reset feature. I get the "some files are missing.your windows installation or recovery media will provide these files" error. So ive got to download the iso anyways

Ive also tried booting into recovery by pressing f11 during startup. It just boots windows 8 normally. I think this is because the laptop came pre loaded with windows 7 and the guys at the hp service center messed up the recovery.

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I honestly don't think your machine was updated by HP service center I think person you bought it off has installed windows 8.

Also the questions I have is Did you check to insure that F11 was active. By Default my HP Restore Key is NOT ACTIVE...you have to turn on in the BIOS...
My Acer Laptops are the same,, RESTORE keys are OFF by Default....
My Dell is the same also. OFF by DEFAULT....
now if some files are missing why did you not try SFC /scannow to fix....
if that failed they why not RESTORE back to not REFRESH...